THE family of a student who was killed as he crossed the road said they hoped lessons would be learned after the driver resposible was locked up for four years.

Learner driver Sadakat Hussein had fled the country after the incident, but his family persuaded him to return home and face the music. And yesterday he was sent to a young offenders' institute.

Manchester Crown Court was told how 19-year-old Jonathan Roberts was catapulted 40ft through the air after he was hit at about 50mph on Oxford Road, Manchester and died almost instantly.

Hussein, 19, then drove off in a Black Honda Prelude, which was later found burned out before Hussein left the country.

He came back three months later on the advice of his family - and has now been convicted of causing death by dangerous driving.

Today, Jonathan's parents John, 52, and Julie, 50, said in a statement: "While nothing can ever fill the gap that Jonathan's death has left in our lives, we do at least feel that justice has been done.

"Similar heartbreaking tragedies happen all too often, and we can only hope that the four-year sentence sends out a message that dangerous driving is not tolerable under any circumstances, and it wrecks the lives of all those concerned."

As reported in later editions of the M.E.N. yesterday, Hussein was told by Judge Clement Goldstone: "You come from a good home and have a hard-working background, but what the public and Jonathan Roberts's family will ask is what possessed you to drive in this way.

"This is a tragedy for you and a tragedy for your family.

"But pause to consider the tragedy that has befallen the family of Jonathan Roberts, for whose future they had great hopes.

"You will, with the help of your parents, pick up the threads when you are released. Jonathan Roberts sadly cannot - and his parents' loss will be felt after the completion of your sentence."

Hussein, also a student, of Beaufort Street, Nelson, was banned for four years and ordered to take an extended test after he admitted driving with no licence or insurance, failing to stop and failing to report an accident.

Defence counsel Simon Myerson QC, said Hussein had never tried to "shirk" his responsibility for causing the victim's death and wanted to express his "profound apologies" to Jonathan's family for the tragedy.

Jonathan, a computer science student, was in his second year of a degree course at Umist and had moved to Manchester from his family home in Shrewsbury, Shropshire to go to university.

Insp Ian Hales, from GMP's Road Policing Unit, said: "Officers spent weeks and months trying to trace the driver who left Jonathan to die. This man may have thought he had got away with taking another person's life, but I am glad that justice has been served."